It has become increasingly popular to use high speed non-impact printers (for example, laser printers such as the Xerox 9790, Kodak 1392 or IBM 3827 in the production of carbonless business forms. In the production of business forms from single sheets or "cut sets" as opposed to continuous webs, manual pasting with edge padding adhesives is required. This, of course, is a potential bottleneck in the processing of such "cut sets" through high speed non-impact laser printers. In addition, manual pasting along with subsequent manual fanning and packing operations prior to shipping and/or use of the forms, results in the build-up of toxic solvent fumes which, of course, are not only undesirable but harmful to workers in the vicinity.
According to the present invention, it is possible to utilize high speed non-impact printers to form multiple part carbonless business forms from cut sets while avoiding the problems associated with manual pasting.
In accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the invention, a three part form set includes a first or upper sheet or form part provided with a continuous strip (or a plurality of spots in line form, also considered an adhesive "strip") of a heat and/or pressure seal adhesive on its underside, a second, or lower form part provided with a similar strip of heat and/or pressure seal adhesive on its upper side; and an intermediate form part provided with appropriately placed punch holes aligned with the adhesive on the upper and lower form parts, allowing contact between the respective overlying adhesive strips on the first and last parts through the punch holes of the intermediate part, and thereby effectively bonding the assembly into a form set. In accordance with conventional carbonless practice, the upper form part is a CB sheet, the lower form part is a CF sheet, and the intermediate form parts are CFB sheets.
The single sheets of the form set as described above can be preprinted, punched, perforated, OCR encoded, etc. with additional value added features including color printing prior to assembly, without interference or difficulty by reason of the presence of the heat and/or pressure sensitive adhesive strips.
The heat and/or pressure seal adhesive strips applied to the first (or upper) and last (or lower) sheets are preferably arranged in linear fashion, although they may have other geometric configurations. Preferably, the adhesive is heat and/or pressure activated permanent adhesive such as that sold commercially by Moore Business Forms, Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., and acted upon by, for example, a commercial Moore pressure sealer known as the Model 4800B, or a Moore Edge Sealer of the type disclosed in co-pending application Ser. No. 07/426,650 filed Oct. 26, 1989, whichever is appropriate.
It will further be understood that while the strips or spots of adhesive may be applied adjacent only one edge of the upper and lower form parts, they may also be applied to two or more edges, depending on the form set configuration.
It is anticipated that the above described concept may also be utilized to accommodate non-impact printers using continuous web paper as opposed to individual sheets.
The individual sheets, after printing in the non-impact printer, may be assembled into multi-part business forms in an accumulator where the individual sheets are collated and assembled into form sets, ready for heat and/or pressure sealing. In a related feature, a sensing mark on the first and last of form parts of a set may be utilized to trigger the passage of the collated form set through a conventional heat and/or pressure sealing device, before further succeeding sheets arrive in the accumulator to complete the next set.
It will be appreciated that in addition to the three-part form set described above, many other form set configurations may be produced in accordance with this invention. For example, a two-part carbonless business form has, in sequence, from top to bottom, a CB (coated back) sheet and a CF (coated front) sheet with continuous strips or spots of adhesive on the underside of the upper form part and the upper side of the lower form part in generally vertical alignment. In a four-part form, the two CFB (coated front and back) intermediate form parts will be provided with aligned punch holes so that the adhesive strips or spots on the upper (CB) and lower (CF) form parts may be heat and/or pressure sealed through the punch holes on the intermediate form parts. In a five-part form, the preferred arrangement is to provide a middle (CFB) form part which has adhesive strips on both its upper and lower surface in vertical alignment with punch holes provided on the second (CFB) and fourth (CFB) form parts, with adhesive strips also being applied to the underside of the upper (CB) form part and the upper side of the lower (CF) form part.
Thus, in accordance with the broader aspects of the invention, there is provided a method of printing and assembling multi-sheet business forms from a plurality of cut sheets comprising the steps of applying a heat and/or pressure sensitive adhesive strip to a lower surface of a first sheet and an upper surface of a second sheet, the adhesive strips on the first and second sheets being in substantial vertical alignment when the first and second sheets are in overlying relationship; providing at least one intermediate sheet, the intermediate sheet having a plurality of apertures therein; passing the first, second and the at least one intermediate sheet through a non-impact printer; collating the first, second and at least one intermediate sheet in overlying relationship so as to provide an individual collated form with the adhesive strips and plurality of apertures in alignment; and passing the collated form through a heat and/or pressure sealing device to thereby activate the heat and/or pressure sensitive adhesive strips by mutual contact through the plurality of apertures.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a multi-part carbonless business form is provided which comprising a first upper sheet having a first heat and/or pressure sensitive adhesive strip adjacent one marginal edge thereof; a second lower sheet having a second heat and/or pressure sensitive adhesive strip adjacent a corresponding marginal edge thereof; and at least one intermediate sheet having a first plurality of apertures vertically aligned with the first and second pressure sensitive adhesive lines.
It is thus a primary object of the present invention to provide for the effective manufacture of multi-part carbonless business forms utilizing non-impact printers, without having to manually apply adhesive to secure the various parts of the form. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention and from the appended claims.